Skip down to the poems!Dreamverses is an experiment. Weekly for a year, I turned my vividest dream into a short illustrated poem. If none were intense enough, I found one in my older journals, but that was rare.

Why Dreamverses? Well, I'd been reading famous poets, and they uninspired me. Their dreams are few and dull, and if they do write up a dream, they're stunned the goose of sleep laid one golden egg. So they title their lone dreampoem My Dream or A Dream--never Cows in Space or Doorknob Orgasm or whatever it's about, as they would for any other topic.

So in Dreamverses I treated dreams as real experiences worth telling. That means I've stuck to the dream-facts. These aren't poems inspired by dreams; they're dreams told as poems. As narratives, not lyrics, their style may be prosaic. But my dreams are baroque, even bizarre; I didn't want to gild the octopus.

Would I recommend dreamversing to other writers? Yes. But gear it to your available time, energy and recall. I started out at one a day, but that was brutal--I needed way more time to polish. I paused for months, midway; in the end it took five days per poem.

Still, I was amazed how enthusiastically my dreams co-operated with the project: a flash-flood of short vivid wild dreams just begging to be written up as poems. It ebbed politely when I began rewrites, and ended with a bang...

ANIMAL HEAVEN: by Wayan; 2008/8/16, an astral dream-poem; Dreamverse #6.
At a party in Animal Heaven, I fall for a rabbit-girl doomed to be human dinner. How can I rescue her? I'm Fate's part-time intern!
CAUTION: BREASTS, BEASTS, INCOMPETENT ANGEL OF DEATH

CROC BOY: by Wayan; 2008/8/17, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #7.
I visit a witch-smeller, who judges apprentice shamans. But when a boy dreams he's a crocodile, watch out!

DAD'S DATES: by Wayan; 2008/8/17, a dream poem, Dreamverse #8.
After my mom's death, my dad starts dating again, while I hide out and wince. Can't I do anything positive?

JELLY REBELLION: by Wayan; 2008/8/19, a poem of a diagnostic dream, Dreamverse #9
I interview my own metabolism. Trouble in Cellville! I've got strikers and usurpers. But at least no invaders...

NOT OUR HAWAI'I: by Wayan; 2008/8/20, a dream poem; Dreamverse #10
My sister & I swim round a weirdly shrunken Pacific, until, near Fiji, we blunder too close to the drain...

SURF THE SAN ANDREAS: by Wayan; 2008/8/21, three short dreampoems, Dreamverse #11
Through twin gates of dream--not ivory and horn any more, but fear and trust...
Three castles on the sea, lovely or lame: a Mock Kremlin, a Ship of Toiletpaper, and a Ship of Brick and Beer...
A mad old surfer of the San Andreas Fault, impossibly riding earth-change...

SLEEPERS ALL: by Wayan; 2008/8/22, a dream poem, Dreamverse #12
I dream I'm an insomniac trapped in a flat full of snoring writers and reporters. Wait a minute...

KISS THE CATS: by Wayan; 2008/8/23, a dream poem, Dreamverse #13
I have to kiss a mess of cats. Fishy, but I'm not chicken. My real beef is with the humans watching...

SAW HER IN HALF?: by Wayan; 2008/8/28, a warning dream-poem, Dreamverse #15
A sorceror's apprentice describes a medical procedure her teacher plans. I sure wouldn't want that done to ME...
CAUTION: TALK OF BLOOD AND SEX

CUTENESS PAGEANT: by Wayan; 2008/8/29, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #16.
I'm trapped in a cutesy cartoon universe! Worse, to judge a beauty contest, I have to see past our style to our souls...

FETAL PAUSE: by Wayan; 2008/8/31, a nightmare-poem, Dreamverse #17
As I write a sad sex dream, a madman curls up fetally in the road outside my window. I'm slow to call 9-1-1, and...

ANCIENT MARE-KIN GRAVEYARD: by Wayan; 2008/9/1, a dreamsong (MP3+lyrics), Dreamverse #18
I'm a ghost watching future archeologists dig up a site of my people--and get it so wrong...

TIME-BUBBLE: by Wayan; 2008/9/1, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #19
In a city crawling across a marshy world, I find a detonating bomb frozen in a time-ball. Why do they bear this risk?

SORB TRUCE: by Wayan; 2008/9/1, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #20
In a desert crawling with aliens who can absorb your mind, I propose a truce, and gain...

SMALL MIRACLES: by Wayan; 2008/9/7, two dream-poems (Tiny Scientists and Barberry); Dreamverse #23
Things start materializing in my house: first three tiny naked scientists and then an impossible fruit...
CAUTION: NUDE SCIENTISTS

INVOKE THE ANIMAL POWERS (or was it PROVOKE?): by Wayan; 2008/9/9, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #24
A children's performance of "Where the Wild Things Are" turns into a riot-orgy. Why do I think it's all about politics?
CAUTION: WILD THING ORGY

AIRACUDA: by Wayan; 2008/9/9, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #25
The jeweled fish over San Francisco grew and grew until it landed and they spoke the secret code to me...

BIRDS ON FIRE: by Wayan; 2008/9/15, a political dream-poem, Dreamverse #26
George Bush leads a hill-tribe raid against the hill-tribe led by Osama bin Laden... and I'm stuck between...
CAUTION: ANTI-HEROES, POLITICAL PREDICTION

THE MOOMIN COMMISSIONERS OF TIME: by Wayan; 2008/9/17, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #27
A new Eve asks the Time Commission to send her back to Ethiopia 45,000 years ago. But they're shy Moomintrolls, not humans...

ETNA-SHASTA, or, GROOM YOUR OWN FEATHERS: by Wayan; 2008/9/18, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #28
On a volcano's rim, watching the lava fountains, I interview a huge blue alien bird who never planned to be a monk...

KING KONG CRAB: by Wayan; 2008/9/20, a dream poem; Dreamverse #29
One wizardry-classmate summons strange beings; another's learned how not to. Some things should be avoided at rush hour...

MY POETIC LICENSE: by Wayan; 2008/10/5, a self-referencing dream poem; Dreamverse #33
Renewing one's life has its costs. What if you can't pay the price? A dreamlet of warning and shame...

PRAISE THE DANCING GOONS: by Wayan; 2008/10/16, a dream-poem: Dreamverse 34
Three big tap-dancing kidnappers is too many to fight. So I try admiring their kidnapping technique...

WHOSE DREAM WAS IT?: by Wayan; 2008/10/18, a nested-dream poem, Dreamverse #35. I'm a Chinese kid fleeing the Japanese Occupation in 1938. As we near San Francisco, I wake to find it's all my dad's dream. Wait... he's alive again? But he wasn't a refugee. Is this a pastlife memory, and if so, whose--his or mine?

THE CHAPARRAL OF TIME: by Wayan; 2008/10/21, a timetravel dream-poem: Dreamverse #36
I snorkel over the time-reefs to an era of talking animals--but why do I crash on the head of rocker Suzi Quatro?

TEETH IN HIS THIGH: by Wayan; 2008/10/30, an embarrassing dream-poem: Dreamverse #37
The Conference on Love has two sexy speakers. One says "my teacher's stalking me" but she clings to him. Love? Hate? Both?
CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM--but what are these two exhibiting?

DRUGGED, SHRUNK AND DAUBED: by Wayan; 2008/11/1, a dream-poem on sexual politics (Dreamverse #38)
I'm worried an alien charity is brainwashing an ex-prostitute. When I wake, she's still there--at 2/5 scale!...

DISCARDS: by Wayan; 2008/3/24, a rap heard in a dream--Dreamverse #39
A Marin girl finds a dirty secret in the school library, and identifies with the discarded books--and people...

MUSICIAN AND FOXTAIL, by Wayan, 2009/2/14, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #40
In Palo Alto I meet strange musicians in the rain, and realize kitsune aren't born but made...

JOE COOL IN FINANCIAL HELL: by Wayan; 2009/6/15; Dreamverse #46
When the school district goes bankrupt, students flee creditors into a hell-cave. But Joe Cool can skateboard on lava in the pit...

GALLEY SLAVE: by Wayan; 2008/11/27, a subtly punning career-advice dream; Dreamverse #47
Shipwrecked and claimed as salvage on Crete, Ed the writer became a dishwashing slave! In contrast, Marie the musician...

FERRYGOAT: by Wayan; 2009/8/15, a dream warning what I was becoming; Dreamverse #48
That levitating bear's not tightrope-walking--she rides a goat strung like soap-on-a-rope. A goat that's me! I'm eating...
CAUTION: UGH!

A BEAGLE, THREE WOLVES, AND A SETTER: by Wayan; 2009/2/6, a dream of wolf-training; Dreamverse #50
Fresh off the Beagle, Darwin and friends meet three wolf-girls on a train and exhibit a Pavlovian (or Biblical) reflex...
CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM, SPECISM, PUNS

BOLLYWOOD LOVE: by Wayan; 2009/4/12, a movie dream (duh!); Dreamverse #51
I live in a universe running on Bollywood rules. I can stand the constant singing and breakdancing; what gets under my skin is that Bollywood Code...

THE GREAT WAVE: by Wayan; 2009/4/24, a dream-poem about the future; Dreamverse #52
I find myself sketching the slope of progress up to the coming singularity, and suddenly seeing a hidden stability...

UNGHOSTS OF CHINA: by Wayan; 2009/9/2, a mysterious dream-poem; Dreamverse #53
After a day of nonstop art, I'm in rural China. Two women tell me their village declared them dead, killed by demons...

SANTA CLUMP: by Wayan; 2009/9/16, a dream-poem; Dreamverse #54
I find myself sitting on toy trains and fake snow as I'm told a fable: how a herd of department-store Santas got lost in a blizzard...

THE DOG KING: by Wayan; 2009/9/28, a short dream poem with portrait; Dreamverse #55
Around royalty, protocol gets complex. I love the Dog King; despite her title she's female. Does that make her a...

CURSE HER IN THE OAK: by Wayan; 2009/9/28, a short dream poem with sketch; Dreamverse #56
I'm a girl in rural Victorian England working as the county's magical protector. I have my hands full: a gang of thievish orphans has holed up in an invisibility tree! Showdown at the oak...

SKY AND PRESTER JOHN: by Wayan; 2009/9/30, two short dream poems with sketches; Dreamverse #57
My neurotic sister and I both lust for a girl named Sky; then I flee a gang of popes and lamas and mullahs...

VERY FUNNY, MR. MOSLEY: by Wayan; 2009/10/8, a dream poem with sketches; Dreamverse #58
Trapped in a blend of Joan of Arcadia and The Tempest Tales, I'm tired of being the pratfall sidekick...

THE UNICORN MASK OF IGNORABILITY: by Wayan; 2009/10/13, a dream poem with sketch; Dreamverse #59
My family home's invaded by ancient Egyptian architects. So I put on my unicorn mask and eavesdrop on their plans...

AQUARINA PRODIGY: by Wayan; 2009/10/15, a dream poem with sketches; Dreamverse #60
A child prodigy stands out in a chorus line of waterdancers. Her body and energy are a patchwork of young and old...

PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD: by Wayan; 2009/10/19, a dream poem w/sketch and map; Dreamverse #61
I get stuck with a one-year mandatory gig as President of the World just as Saudi Arabia collapses, and fools rush in...

HELL CAFE: by Wayan; 2009/10/21, a dream poem w/sketch; Dreamverse #62
A Buddhist scroll shows me Hell Cafe, where diners become entrees. But I read the scroll backwards! You can escape Hell just by walking out, against the traffic flow...
CAUTION: CANNIBAL SOULS

CLAY AND HOP: by Wayan; 2009/10/30, a dream poem with sketches; Dreamverse #63
I touch the secret soul of a cancer survivor, upsetting her. To apologize, I become a goofy hopping god...
CAUTION: FONDLING SACRED FIGURINES